The Cadet Struggle is Real

The fact that the every upperclassmen cadet expects us to be perfect in every way, shape, and form really messes with my mind and it kills me on the inside. When we sound off (give the greeting of the day with name and rank) inside the dorm area, we aren't allowed to look around and see who is talking to us, so we are stock still at attention and looking straight forward. We ask permission to ask a question and they always rudely say “why don’t you know who I am!” I wonder why we don’t know who you are, maybe it’s because they make sure we can’t see your face! Sometimes we know who the person is, and we sound off and they are impressed or they just play it off like it’s nothing to them. As for myself, I’m one of those people that puts names to faces a lot easier than putting names to voices.

The other problem is when the upperclass cadets just walk into our rooms at random times and yell at us for random things. Especially when we are in the middle of something important, it really doesn't help me concentrate. There has been plenty of times where I will be in the middle of a quiz or doing something important and the four knocks means that they are about to invade my personal space and come get on my case for no reason whatsoever. Why can’t they just leave us alone, don’t they have better things to do than bug the freshmen cadets? This is a daily occurrence and the other thing that makes me mad is that we have to be at attention the whole time that an upperclassmen is in our dorm rooms. The problem is that the upperclassmen will get so bored with themselves that they just bug us and tell us to do stupid things.

We sometimes do “fun” activities which take place during the times that we are supposed to be studying and it makes all of mad. Some people have really important tests, quizzes, or even exams to take the next day. This is a major problem because academics are supposed to come first, but the policy of the upperclassmen think that the Corp comes first and that really messes with us and our GPA’s. Some of my classwork has have to have been put off because of the things that we have been told to do. Grades suffer for this reason, no wonders that the Corp GPA drops drastically every Fall semester.

I have been ranting for some time on this subject, but you all should see where I am coming from on this. The Corp is a great program, don’t get me wrong on that, but they just need to back off the freshmen a little and give them some space to breath. I know our lives are supposed to suck, but at least give us a chance to get a decent college experience while doing it.